This Ordinary-Looking Almanac Became An Important Part of My Self-Care Journey. Here’s Why.
In the 1990’s, school books constantly surrounded my life during childhood years.
Even as I passed through the Compaq PC, Windows 98, and Snake phone game era, books were still the main focus.
The motto in my Singapore household was “We are poor. Study hard. Don’t Play. Get into good schools. Study harder. Get into a good university.”
That motto held true for many other local households too. This created a highly competitive studying culture. Every year in school was a competition for high grades.
We also grew up in a culture of, if I were to represent it by local slang, “Simi Earth? Care about apa ini recycling? Care about yourself first lah!”
Which means “Why care about the earth or recycling? Focus on caring about yourself first!”
And naturally, caring about the earth or climate change was never a focus in the school syllabus, or in our culture. It was constantly about memorizing facts and regurgitating them, whether it was for the arts, the sciences, or the languages.
So it’s not hard to imagine how I grew up wearing educational books as a chain of armor against life’s challenges. They were also chains that tied me down: in creativity, self-confidence, self-awareness, and more.
By the time I had graduated, entered the workforce, and gotten used to working life, I had conformed, surrounded by similar people. There was a lack of self-expression. I was apathetic about life, earth, and nature. Low-confidence is more accurate.
Some call this the dark night of the soul. A lost and lonely period.
And I won’t say The Carbon Almanac appeared as a book in shining armor to save me from that, but it certainly came at the right moment in 2022.
It was a small light at first. Here’s a book that 300 people have compiled about carbon and climate change. Take it, love it, share the ideas to more people that care. It’s that simple.
As I participated more in this project, I noticed what I gave kept coming back to me with more generosity.
The warm welcome, without bias or judgment, has reshaped my perspective of this “cold, dark world”, along with the large number of eye-opening experiences and perspectives shared by The Carbon Almanac community members all across the world, in different industries and life situations.
The humbleness of well-known and established members who never fail to be encouraging and gracious has helped lift me up from my shadows of low-confidence and imposter syndrome.
The huge outpour of love for the earth that we’re living on, the generosity in efforts to help without keeping count.
All of these experiences, from day one, have shaped the self-care that I found for myself, and that hasn’t stopped. Metaphorically, the books that chained me down have been transformed by the Almanac, into a highly supportive and warm companion.
And I am grateful for the safe space that I have found in this community and movement.
They say that life offers you opportunities to grow, but only if you grab them. I’ve skipped other opportunities, but when this one came, something in me told me to grab it and not let go. And I’m glad I did.
I hope the Almanac and what it stands for will continue to offer a helping hand to everyone else in this world that finds it, whether it’s right now or in the future.
Allan Ling is a marketer, business owner, and member of The Carbon Almanac Network. Learn more at thecarbonalmanac.org
